agency which as you know are under fire since the revelation by former nsa analyst edward snowden that revealed documents that showed that they had been listen together phone conversation or scooping up the phone numbers of conversation of american citizens. the director of national intelligence said that the information was gathered legally, and the content is only available to a handful of people. >> everything that we do on this program is audited 100%. on the business records. 100%. the da data is kept separate frm all the other data we have. it's important to understand that the leaker did not have access to this data period. >> so randall, are these hearings setting the stage for the usa freedom act, and if so what would that legislation mean? what would it entail? >> reporter: well, yes, indeed. the hearings are setting the stage for the freedom act. the freedom act would be an amendment of the patriot okay, and what it would not do is restrict the power of the nsa to gather intelligence but plays some new rules. for example, it would end the "dragnet" collection of phone record